The growth of the city began in the 19th century with the mining of coal and the production of steel in the Ruhr Area. Hagen was the scene of fighting during the Ruhr Uprising, 13 March - 2 April 1920 and has a monument to the Ruhr Red Army.[]

In 1928, Hagen developed into a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants.[]

Economy

Owing to the extensive use of water power along the rivers Ruhr, Lenne, Volme and Ennepe, metal processing played an important role in the region of Hagen in and even before the 15th century.[]
In the 17th and 18th century, textile and steel industries as well as paper production followed.[]

The city is heavily indebted and in the process of cutting city services in order to balance its budget.[]

The city has also benefitted from the export of a wide variety of breads, most notably Hagenschmagenbrot.

Education

One of the five branches of South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences is located in the city (also: Fachhochschule Südwestfalen (FH SWF)) which offers various engineering programmes. The inception of this institution in the city dates back to 1824.

Attractions

Hagen is home to the LWL-Freilichtmuseum Hagen, or Hagen Westphalian Open-Air Museum, a collection of historic industrial facilities where trades such as printing, brewing, smithing, milling, and many others are represented not simply as static displays, but as living, working operations that visitors may in some cases even be invited to participate in. It is located near the Hagen community of Eilpe. The Historisches Centrum Hagen includes the city museum and Werdringen castle. In the Blätterhöhle cave in Hagen the oldest fossils of modern people in Westphalia and the Ruhr were found. Some date back to the early Mesolithic, 10,700 years B.C. It seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people in this area maintained a foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies.[3]

Traffic

Hagen has been an important rail junction for the southeastern Ruhr valley since the first rail line opened in 1848. The shunting yard of Hagen-Vorhalle is among Germany's largest, and the central station offers connections to the ICE network of Deutsche Bahn as well as to local and S-Bahn services. Since December 2005, Hagen has also been the starting point for a new service into Essen, operated by Abellio Deutschland.

Local traffic is handled by Hagener Straßenbahn (Hagen Tramways), which, despite its name, offers only bus services, as the last tramway route in Hagen was abandoned in May 1976. All local rail and bus services operate under the transport association VRR.